The Next One ...

[Griffin800]

Looks about ready to get wet Nancy?

Bill H.

[Nancy]

Looks about ready to get wet Nancy?

Bill H.

Soon Bill. Took her outside last weekend to start sanding and got rained out. Ironically it has been too hot here this week for that so I have been working on some of the finishing touches. The hatches fit better after heating them but not as well as I would like. I didn't want to resort to straps so I made some toggles out of some scrap cherry. In keeping with the tree motif I made them leaf shaped. They seem to work well.







I decided not to use the recessed deck fittings on this build. It seemed too disruptive to the deck design to cut those big holes in the deck. I made some pad eyes out of the same scraps of cherry I used for the toggles.
I will glue them on after I sand the deck smooth.



I bought a Waters Dancing stitch and glue seat kit for this one.





Another good spot to use up some of that darkened hardener.



I epoxied a piece of cotton fabric to the seat top before glassing.

[stumpy]

Nancy, this time you've gone over the edge!!! I hope you're able to get this one from the car to the water, but you may have to make a norshak, to beat off the admirers long enough to get it wet!

[COPPERPOINT]

Hey Nancy, it looks great. Taking an oops moment and turning it around that way is poetry. It becomes a focal point and absolutely nobody(well except those of us around here) will be the wiser. Mark of a true craftsperson. The seat looks great too. Have you used one before? i.e. How comfortable is it? How much epoxy did you apply to the fabric before you glassed over it too? Sorry for all the questions. Beautiful work though and I can't wait to see it on water.

Rich

[Griffin800]

Wasn't it Ross that came up with the idea of the patterned fabric for a seat? I know I've seen that process before and it looked interesting. Might make a really interesting deck on a kayak too if you could find the right material.

Bill H.

[Nancy]

The seat looks great too. Have you used one before? i.e. How comfortable is it? How much epoxy did you apply to the fabric before you glassed over it too? Sorry for all the questions. Beautiful work though and I can't wait to see it on water.

Rich

Thanks Rich. I have never used one of these seats before but it comes highly recomended by Robert Pruden (who posts on the Guillemot forum) so I thought I would give it a try. It is not finished but I installed it temporarily and used it several times last week. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it was. The foam block backrest not so much. When I applied the cloth I brushed a coat of epoxy on the wood first. I laid the cloth on the seat and brushed on enough epoxy to wet the cloth then smoothed it down with a squeege making sure it laid flat in all of the creases. I laid the glass on right away and wet it out.

Bill - Ross did use cloth in a fibergalsss seat he made. There are pictures on his Whiptail build. CLC also uses cloth to dress up their stand up paddle boards. There are directions here in their shop tips.

http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/fittin ... brics.html

[stumpy]

Used to be a common practice back in the late '60's & '70's when I was making surf boards and paipo boards, in Hawaii. One guy I knew laid out the fabric, cut it to shape on the board, with an exacto knife, then ironed his fiberglass on top of everything, then applied the poly resin... claimed the ironing kept it from slipping under the resin.

[Griffin800]

I think Huki surfski's also use patterned cloth on some of their boat's decks, interesting graphics if you're interested too: http://www.huki.com/

Bill H.

[skotmiller]

Amazing work Nancy.
I used your plan to build a kayak for my friend. Not nearly as detailed, or done yet. But, thought you might like to see it.

The right side of the stern, you can see blue around the reflection of the light. It's a foil I applied under the eopxy to give it a shimmery, watery effect. And the black Om symbol has goldleaf mixed into the epoxy to (hopefully) shimmer too. Then the hull has a pattern embedded into it of the real lilly pad you can just barly see under the other 3 on the deck, It too will be under the fiberglass when done. I'll post better photos when I can get some.


Many more pics here:http://scmkayaks.com/builds/forstacie

[Nancy]

Thanks Scott. Looks great so far. Still not completely finished with mine yet. I got the fittings for the decklines on and 1 coat of varnish and then decided to try to inprove the tracking. I cut a small wedge out of a piece of scrap and duck taped it to the rear stem. It made a big difference. I paddled it all summer like this and was very happy with the results. I plan to add a permanent hardwood piece before next summer. I am currently working on a solo canoe I plan to give to my brother. When I start the fiberglassing on that project I will glass on the wedge.